On the Run - A HermitCraft Fanfic

Chapter 9

As I approached Ren I could see his eyes light up. He opened his arms and started running to get to him. He pulled me into a tight hug and lifted me off of my feet.

Ren hadn't changed at all since I last saw him. He had the same signature sunglasses, red shirt with dark blue trousers and the almost identical grin.

He let me down and that's when I first got a good look at the height difference between us now. I was taller than him before but now we are almost the same height. That made me happy. Someone who can't brag about how tall they are to me.

"So dude, it's been a long time huh?" He still has to look down to speak to me but only a little bit.
"Yeah it has, where have you been?" My wings flutter in excitement. Ren notices this and laughs.
"Well I've been a few places. Just after you left they decided I wasn't rare enough to be in the Home so they sent me to Concorp. Which wasn't that bad but was still hell."
"Why's that?"
"Well it was run by Hybrids, Vexes to be exact, so they didn't torture me or anyone else. They used phycological methods."

I listened to every word he said and tried to imagine it.

"The Vexes are a strange breed and can go through walls and get into your head. They can make you see things. For me it was the image of a priest kidnapping a child for a cult and eventually marrying a politician twice his age. But that's not important." He turns his head away from me but doesn't stop speaking, "but the dark hooded man choked you of course it's important!" He turned his head back the other way but looked past me. Like he was talking to himself, "He didn't lay a finger on me, now hush, Grian is talking to me."

"Uhhhh Ren what did they do to you there?" He chuckled and shook his head. I was very concerned for him, and I would've kept asking him if I didn't hear footsteps from behind me. I turned around to see Stress coming towards us. She had a bounce in her step when she walked and a big smile on her face.

"Hello Grian and Ren! What are you two talking about?" She stood next to Ren and smiled at the two of us. Her brown bobbed hair was covering one of her eyes but the other was full of happiness and innocence, something I hadn't seen enough of. It made me happy to see her happy though.

"Oh I was just telling Grian about Concorp and what happened to me at their Institution." Stresses face immediately dropped at the sound of the companies name, I assumed she knew something that both of us didn't.

Ren didn't seem to take notice of it and kept talking about... stuff, I wasn't really listening anymore. Stress looked uncomfortable and kept shifting on her legs. Eventually I had to find out what was wrong with her.

"Are you ok?" Ren stopped talking and looked down to Stress who was staring at her feet and fiddling with her hands.
"Yeah." Ren glanced at me and his eyes were filled with worry, I can only imagine mine were the same. I reached out and put my hand on Stress' shoulder, she flinched.
"Stress, are you ok?"

She took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled.
"I've helped a lot of hybrids that came from there... not all of them were" she hesitated, "alright in the head, so to speak." Stress inhaled again and looked up at us. Her eyes were no longer smiling. "Ren, you got out before anything really bad could happen to you. Some hybrids couldn't do anything for themselves, not even walking, speaking or some even thinking, their minds were so broken." She smiled sadly as me and Ren stand there awkwardly.

It was that kind of awkward when you are very bad at dealing with sad people or helping people when they are upset and they come to vent to you. You really want to help them but just aren't quite sure how.

"Well I'm sorry for dampening the mood, I have to go and," she paused for a second and stepped backwards once, "help... Jevin." Stress quickly turned on her heel and ran back to the house leaving me and Ren alone again.

"Well that was weird. I wonder what she knows that we don't."

"Me to. And I was in there."